Japanese Science and Technology are highly esteemed, trusted and relied upon in the Arab countries. Also Japanese engineering products and personal electronics are highly-praised and respected in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. Therefore, requests for joint research with Japanese scientists and companies are in high demand in this region. [1] Owing to their diverse and time honored national characters, political systems and established foundations of national finance, there are many different aspects and qualities of the major oil and natural gas producing countries that supply Japan such as the Arab countries in the Gulf as Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, and the North African countries Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. However, there are also similarities within these countries such as (1) their lifestyle based on Islamic culture, (2) their desire to develop their own high-tech industries, and (3) their use of the Arabic language. Therefore, it is highly likely that the valuable experience that we SSB project members have accumulated in our Algeria-Japan cooperation project can also be applied in these countries as well. In this paper I will demonstrate how the “Sahara Solar Breeder Project (SSB)” is a science based industrial oriented bottom up approach project between Japan and the Arab countries and how Japanese Science and Technology should collaborate and work in partnership with the Arab countries based on the in depth experience derived from the SSB project. In addition, I will discuss the future of science and technology diplomacy, resource diplomacy and energy security between Japan and the Arab countries.

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For the oil-producing countries of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, which are looking for somewhere to invest their vast sums of oil money, the Sahara Solar Breeder (SSB) Project is the ideal solution, as it takes a self-propagation approach to the solar power generation business, building factories that use the limitless quantities of sand found in the deserts of their own lands as the raw material with which to make the high-purity crystalline silicon needed for the manufacture of solar photovoltaic panels, along with the factories that produce solar photovoltaic panels from this silicon. Senior government officials and SWF (Sovereign Wealth Funds) in many Arab countries have great expectations for the SSB Project and are eager to see it realized as soon as possible. The SSB Project is not only ideally suited to the needs of the oil-producing countries of the Islamic world but is also an extremely important project for Japan, with the potential to prevent the decline of Japanese industry due to the weakness of the US Dollar as well as a possible collapse of the Japanese economy. However, any discussion of a paradigm shift in energy must take into account issues such as international settlement currencies, as well as energy, water resources and food security. With a macro engineering project such as the SSB project, achieving a consensus, not only among scientists and experts from a wide range of different fields but also among government, industry and civil society will also be an important issue. This research paper discuss the need to achieve a consensus, establish an economy based on the silicon and solar energy standard, with the Japanese yen as its key currency, and develop a political economy of silicon, as prerequisites for the realization of the SSB Project.

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The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 and the subsequent accident of the nuclear generators at Fukushima Dai-ichi Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company seriously affected Japanese economy. However, the real influence has not been necessarily appraised, and so the various arguments regarding economic policy for reconstruction from the Earthquake and the nuclear contamination are flourished. In this note, based on economic indicators of no less than a year after the Earthquake, we analyze the economic influence of the Earthquake including the nuclear contamination and suggest the possible economic measures for reconstruction. The conclusion is to separate the reconstruction from the depression and it from the Earthquake and to limit the reconstruction measures only to the stricken area for the reconstruction from the Earthquake.

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